Parker Williams is one of my favorite authors of all time, hands down. Every one of his stories are amazing, and it would be impossible for me to choose a favorite, but I have to say that Haven’s Creed absolutely captivated me. This book has everything you could possibly want. There’s white-knuckled action, peeking-through-parted-fingers suspense, entire-box-of-Kleenex emotion, and cold-shower-needed passion.

​I walked away from this book feeling absolutely emotionally wrecked, in the very best way. These characters—Haven and Sammy and the host of secondary characters—are so real. The time I spent with them was bittersweet. I loved every second of it, and with each page turn, I knew I was getting closer to the end of their story. Here’s to hoping that there are many more books in this series. Haven’s Creed is an incredible story.

​Highly, highly recommended.

An act of violence destroys his family and ends the life he knows. To escape his haunted past, he joins the military, where, as a sniper, he is trained to kill with precision and detachment. When a covert organization offers him a new purpose, he becomes Haven, an operative devoted to protecting the innocent when he can and avenging them when he cannot.

After ten years of battling the evil in the world, the life no longer holds the attraction or meaning it once had, and he’s ready to walk away. Then he meets Samuel, a young man forced from the age of twelve to work as a sex slave. If ever a man had a need for Haven, it is this one.

Yet nothing about this growing relationship is one-sided. Sammy gives Haven a stability he’s never known, and Haven becomes the rock upon which Sammy knows he can depend.

When Sammy reveals something about the enemy Haven has been hunting for months, Sammy fears it will destroy what they’ve built and he’ll lose his home in Haven’s heart.

​A Day In The Life...

“My target’s on the move, Kelly. I have to go.”

“Be careful,” I said to empty air. I hated it when he hung up on me in mid sentence.

Haven had been gone for over a week now, which left me with quite a bit of downtime.It’s not that the man was messy, far from it. He’d so compartmentalized his life, it really became a matter of coming to the house on a daily basis and cooking him some meals so he’d eat healthy. The man could live on junk food, and probably still never gain an ounce.

I poured myself a snifter of brandy, the ultra top shelf stuff that Haven insisted on having in the house. He didn’t drink often, but when he did, it had to be something expensive. And as an assassin who’d been with the company for getting close to a decade, he definitely earned it.

Haven had changed so much since the day I met him. When Rook first sent me to be Haven’s houseman/confidante, the man had bristled.

“Be that as it may,” Rook replied, using his voice modulator to make him sound like Darth Vader, “Kelly is going to be a fixture in your life, so get used to it.”

With that he disconnected, leaving Haven glowering at me. Most men would probably be intimidated by him, but I wasn’t most men. I gave him my best smile and his lip curled. Oh, he would be a fun one to work with.

“Stay the fuck out of my way,” he snapped.

“Whatever you say,” I answered as sweetly as I could.

And that’s how our relationship went. He rarely spoke to me, and even then it would be to tell me he’d be gone a few days on an assignment. But there was something bubbling beneath the surface. I could see it in his gaze, hear it in his weary voice. Haven fought the good fight, but I knew he wasn’t happy. When I mentioned it to Rook, he dismissed my concerns.

“No one in our line of work is happy, Kelly. If he enjoyed it, I’d be worried. But he’s a good man. A good operative. He’ll get the job done because it has to be.”

The job didn’t go exactly as planned. Haven eliminated his target, and saved the thirteen year old twins that Peter McKay had kidnapped, but something went wrong. Haven had been shot by one of McKay’s men, then he’d had to hide out in an abandoned building until an extraction could be made. It took two days to track him, and when they found him, he was in a pretty bad way. The bullet had impacted with his vest, torn through his exposed skin, and left a nasty looking wound. Dr. Lilah McQuade, our on-call physician, had patched him up, but Haven needed taking care of, and that job fell to me. He’d gotten an infection, and as his temperature spiked, he babbled incoherently. I took a wet cloth and used it to cool his skin as much as I could, kept him covered, and did whatever I could. Lilah had been a constant figure in our life for a time, hovering over him like a mother hen. But I could see the worry in her eyes, and I wondered if they mirrored my own.

On the fifth day he finally woke up, weak and groggy. Lilah kept tabs on him, but removed the needles and tubes Haven had needed to keep him alive.

“He’s going to be weak for some time,” she told me. “Don’t let him strain himself. He needs plenty of rest.”

“Thank you, Lilah,” I said. “I really appreciate you being here.”

She smiled and patted me on the arm. “You’re a good man, Kelly. He’s going to be an absolute bear to live with, and I don’t envy you the task.”

Lord the woman hadn’t lied. Haven growled, grumbled, whined, threatened, and then, when that didn’t work, sulked like a kid. Through it all, I didn’t allow him to get out of bed. When our third physical therapist quit, citing Haven’s irrational behavior, the job fell to me as I was the only one he couldn’t scare away. Though he sure as hell did try.

“Get the fuck away from me,” he roared.

“I’m going to change the dressing, then we’re going to get up and move around. There won’t be any discussion on this, Haven. Rook has given his blessing for me to use whatever means necessary to get you out of this bed.”

The bed, for lack of a better word, was a piece of crap. A man Haven’s size needed a much larger space to spread out, but he’d insisted on something not much larger than a cot.

“And what are you going to do, old man?”

I laughed at the comment, and the petulant stare he graced me with. If he thought I would be like the other people he’d chase out of his life, he’d be sadly mistaken. I stepped out of the room and grabbed my secret weapon, then returned to the bedroom where he’d curled up on the bed, his back to me.

“Last chance,” I said as sweetly as possible. “Get up or else.”

He lifted an arm and gave me the finger, so I pumped my water rifle and let loose with an impressively high powered stream of ice cold liquid. Haven shrieked and tried to pull the covers up, but I kept up the pressure. He grunted and pushed himself up, and the look on his face had me wondering if maybe I pushed just a little too far.

“You’re finally up,” I said, though it was pretty obvious as he stalked toward me. I stood my ground, my high tech squirt gun at the ready.

He crowded me until I was up against the wall, then leaned in close and whispered, “I want one of those.”

For a moment I had been too stunned to speak, then burst out laughing. “Do your exercises and I’ll make sure to buy you one.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he assured me. “You’ve given me reason now. Once I’m back in shape, I’m coming for you, old man.”

He never did come after me, but he busted his ass to make up for the time he’d missed, and within a few months, he’d gone back on assignment.

“You did good work,” Rook told me. “You know that we don’t normally keep people together more than a year.”

And it was true.The agency had policies about so many things, because they didn’t want any kind of emotional attachments.

“We’re assigning you to him on a more permanent basis.”

You could have knocked me over with a feather duster. “Really?”

“There aren’t many who would stand up to Haven. He’s like a bull, and if you don’t move, he’ll trample all over you. But he needs you, even if he doesn’t know it. You won’t take his shit, and that’s important.”

And it stayed that way for close to a decade. When he contacted me while Haven was on assignment and asked me about Haven’s mental stability, I told him that the man would get the job done, just like he always had, but there had been a change in him. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it had been monumental.

“I’m tracking a potential threat,” he told me. “This one is bad, and I’m going to need Haven. If you think he’s a liability, then we’ll have to work without him.”

“No,” I replied. “He’s okay. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“I need you to, Kelly. If what I’m hearing is true, this could very well be the toughest assignment Haven’s ever received.”

Kelly shut down the link and the room grew oppressively quiet. I poured another drink, wanting to numb the uneasy feelings that had become a near constant companion in the last six months. What I’d told Rook was true. There had been a huge change in Haven. He’d never be accused of being warm and fuzzy, but he’d grown more distant than usual. I hoped to hell that Rook wouldn’t drag him into whatever was going on, but I knew its as a futile desire. There was a storm brewing on the horizon, and Haven was about to be dead center, large and in charge, just like always. But for the first time since I’d known him, I had to wonder if he’d be coming back.

​Meet the author:

Parker Williams believes that true love exists, but it always comes with a price. No happily ever after can ever be had without work, sweat, and tears that come with melding lives together.

Living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Parker held his job for nearly 28 years before he decided to retire and try new things. He enjoys his new life as a stay-at-home author and also working on Pride-Promotions, an LGBT author promotion service.